Tea time

I always love a nice cup of tea. Paris has reallly nice tea brands to offer. Fauchon, le Palais de the, Mariage Freres and Kusmi tea. Thinking about what to get my parents for X'mas, I stepped into Fauchon for the first time. The big store in Place de Madeleine always looked a little scary with the disco deco... but, it actually was quite pleasant in the gift shop. I bought myself a Cocoa with vanilla, very special.

Mariage Freres is such a wonderful experience. I really love Marco Polo Rouge. Strong fruits and flowery aroma but smooth taste. The service in the shop is excellent!! Nothing like my local supermarket... I actually was treated like a customer.

Kusmi Tea has the best Chai. I got it for my friend's birthday and I got to have a taste. There aren't many places that serves Chai in Paris and I was missing it a lot. It was so lovely with lots of honey and soy milk...

To go with the nice cup of tea, there's Canele. Little funny looking cake from Bordeaux. I actually hated it for the first time I tried it from my local bakery. I could not finish it. until I had one from Lemoine. I got them as a gift and to be honest, I wasn't sure about it. However, this one is unbelievably delicious!!! Crunchy on the outside and moist in the middle. Not too sweet. PERFECT.

Vin chaud and shopping in Winter Paris

What good is it if you can't shop in Paris. The Winter set in, and I need to get some Paris shopping out of my system before I go back home. I was lucky enough to find out about A.P.C broderie (basically a warehouse sale) through my good friend. It was like heaven... Items were 95% off...
A handbag, boots, necklace and a pair of sunnies later, I felt like a new woman.

My Stockholm treasure is this ACNE dress.

And the sandals from le Comptoir des Cottoniers.

Coquelicot

It's close to my house, cheap, open on Sundayz and amazing hot chocolate. Perfect!

Coquelicot
24 rue des Abbesses
75018
Metro: Abbesses

Chateau de Versailles

After 11 months of living in Paris, I experienced Versailles for the first time. On the perfect day of rain and strong wind. Some may call that a "storm" But the good thing is that no queque to get in. I heard from others that some days, you'll be waiting in line for 2 hours. I really wanted to see the Takashi Murakami exhibition which is actually in the Chateau. You basically can see the exhibition if you get a ticket for the palace. It's controversial as some are totally against this idea of exhibiting modern art in a historical and political place. But that's what make it amazing. There are such out of place objects but in some ways they look good together.

Stockholm

What an amazing beautiful city! Full of goodness. Good design, fashion, architecture and cafes. It's been a while since I had a good Cafe latte that I could actually taste the coffee... not a glass of milk with a dash of coffee.



My friend took me to this cafe Jin and Peeters. Newly opened by a Japanese wife and a Belgian husband. They have a unique menu of dumplings, Belgian waffles and roast chicken. Weird but good. So good.

It's dangerous shopping there... Could have spent few more days shopping (window shopping) in Stockholm. I really loved Grandpa. A select shop full of great Swedish designers.

Basquiat Exposition / Hotel d'amour

Basquiat exhibition at Musee d'art Moderne. I often lose motivation to go see a big exhibition or museums because of the waiting involved in getting in... But this was worth the wait. Internet tickets are very wise to get prior to getting there, though we didn't do that and ended up waiting for about 45mins.

Musee D'art Moderne
11 Avenue du President Wilson
75116 Paris



Hotel d'amour is designed by Andre and Lionel from Collette. As much as the bar downstairs is said to be a "hipster hangout" implying bad service and expensive drinks, I found that it's cosy and nice. The service is no less than a local cafe/bistro. In Paris, I would say you are bound to get bad service if the waiter's having a bad day. You can get grumpy waiters either if it's a hipster hangout or not. Drinks are standard bar prices. Courtyard and glass ceiling is very pretty.

Hotel d'amour
8 rue Navarin
75009 Paris

Le Comptoir de Relais

It's one of the restaurants of Yves Camdeborde, a French chef, also one of the judges in French Master chef. It was a very sophisticated Parisian experience. It opens at 12pm for lunch. There was a queque before it opened and while we were eating, it got bigger and bigger. Luckly we were second in line so that we can pick the table we wanted.

I had a sucking pig "Cochon de lait", my friend had "pavé de boeuf", thick beef steak. I hear too much of "melts in your mouth" comments about food and I dislike using that myself however, it was exactly that.



For dessert, we had a cheesecake with berry ice cream and fig confiture.

Le Comptoir de relais
9 Carrefour de l'Odeon
75006 Paris